Rawl s Theory of justice
Chapter I
RAWLS THEORY OF JUSTICE 1.1) Introduction
John Rawls, a modern and one of the most influential philosophers, who held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard University and Fulbright Fellowship at Christ Church, Oxford, published several books and many articles. He wrote a series of highly influential articles in the 1950s and ’60s that helped refocus on morals and political philosophy on substantive problems. He is widely regarded as one of the most important political philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century. His work has greatly influenced modern political thought. He is chiefly known for his book ‘A Theory of Justice’, an effort to define social justice and for his theory of ‘justice as fairness’, which develops principles of justice to govern a modern social order. Rawls' theory provides a framework that explains the significance, in a society assumed to consist of free and equal persons, of political and personal liberties, of equal opportunity, and cooperative arrangements that benefit the more and the less advantaged members of society.
Rawls was dissatisfied with the traditional philosophical arguments about what makes a social institution just and about what justifies political or social actions and policies. The utilitarian argument holds that societies should pursue the greatest good for the greatest number. This argument has a number of problems, including, especially, that it seems to be consistent with the idea of the tyranny of majorities over minorities. The intuitionist argument holds that humans intuit what is right or wrong by some innate moral sense. This is also problematic because it simply explains away justice by saying that people will “know it when they see it,” and it fails to deal with the many conflicting human intuitions. In the preface of his book he observes that, “During much of modern moral philosophy the predominant systematic theory has been some form of utilitarianism. .... We
RAWLS THEORY OF JUSTICE 1.1) Introduction
John Rawls, a modern and one of the most influential philosophers, who held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard University and Fulbright Fellowship at Christ Church, Oxford, published several books and many articles. He wrote a series of highly influential articles in the 1950s and ’60s that helped refocus on morals and political philosophy on substantive problems. He is widely regarded as one of the most important political philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century. His work has greatly influenced modern political thought. He is chiefly known for his book ‘A Theory of Justice’, an effort to define social justice and for his theory of ‘justice as fairness’, which develops principles of justice to govern a modern social order. Rawls' theory provides a framework that explains the significance, in a society assumed to consist of free and equal persons, of political and personal liberties, of equal opportunity, and cooperative arrangements that benefit the more and the less advantaged members of society.
Rawls was dissatisfied with the traditional philosophical arguments about what makes a social institution just and about what justifies political or social actions and policies. The utilitarian argument holds that societies should pursue the greatest good for the greatest number. This argument has a number of problems, including, especially, that it seems to be consistent with the idea of the tyranny of majorities over minorities. The intuitionist argument holds that humans intuit what is right or wrong by some innate moral sense. This is also problematic because it simply explains away justice by saying that people will “know it when they see it,” and it fails to deal with the many conflicting human intuitions. In the preface of his book he observes that, “During much of modern moral philosophy the predominant systematic theory has been some form of utilitarianism. .... We